by James L. Cambias

I had a lot of fun writing GURPS Planet of Adventure. Even at the darkest
times (when the manuscript was about 75 percent done and I began lying
awake at night wondering if I was really cut out for game design) I was
never reluctant to go back to work on it. Tschai is a fun place and I
liked spending time there.

I did a close reading of the novels, taking careful notes which I then
organized under the appropriate headings in the outline. Though in many
places I expanded on what Jack Vance described (especially in matters
like local government structure), my goal was to avoid actually
contradicting anything in the text.

The book contains several adventure seeds and campaign outlines, but one
idea which never made it even into the proposal was the notion of a
random adventure generator. The concept fits Tschai's swashbuckling,
peril-filled environment, but there just didn't seem to be enough room.
So what follows isn't quite an outtake; call it a shard from a vanished
reality in which GURPS Planet of Adventure was a 256-page tome.

The Random Tschai Adventure Generator

To create a Random Tschai Adventure, first roll to determine who the main
adversaries will be. The table is biased in favor of Dirdir, Dirdirmen,
Humans, and Blue Chasch, since those are the most active and numerous
groups on Tschai. Wanek and Old Chasch are the least likely opponents.
Since the aliens on Tschai are fairly territorial, the nature of the
adversaries usually determines the location. If you're facing Dirdir,
that probably means you're in Dirdir territory in Kislovan; Chasch as
enemies indicates Kotan. Ordinary humans and Pnume can turn up anywhere,
so the GM can pick a location that seems interesting, or simply use the
current location of the party.

Example: Gamemaster Wilbur is creating an adventure for tonight's game.
He rolls a 14 for the adversaries: Green Chasch. Since the Green Chasch
spend all their time on the steppes of Kotan, that gives him the general
location.

Next determine the goal of the adventure -- what the PCs are trying to
accomplish. If the adventure is to be a long and elaborate one, roll
multiple times. The first roll becomes the overall goal, with one or more
subsidiary goals which must be accomplished first.

Example: Wilbur continues to create tonight's adventure. He rolls a
single goal, number 12: Find an Object. He decides that the PCs will be
searching for a Terran supply drop from space which was knocked
off-course by hostile missile fire. It landed in Green Chasch territory,
so the PCs will have to get it and avoid the alien nomads.

Another Example: Meanwhile, Gamemaster Jim wants to create an epic story
arc for his Tschai campaign, which will span a month or more of gaming.
He first rolls to determine the overall goal, and gets number 10: Rescue
a Person. To perform that rescue, however, the PCs must first accomplish
three subsidiary goals (one for each gaming session before the finale).
Jim rolls three more times and gets 13, 15, and 9. So the party must
defend a place, conquer a place, and reach a destination. Jim decides to
rearrange them, so that the PCs have to help defend a way station against
raiders, make a long trek by caravan, and finally recapture a fortress
which has been seized by bandits. Only then can they proceed to rescue
their lost comrade.

Once you have a goal, come up with problems. The adversaries are
naturally the biggest problem, but there are others. Again, depending on
how long a game session you want, roll once or several times on the
Additional Perils table. For total randomness, roll a die to see how many
times to roll on the table.

Additional Perils are difficulties, either serious or minor, which the
characters must face in addition to the chief adversaries. Savage Beasts
is pretty self-explanatory: the PCs encounter dangerous animals (or
possibly carnivorous plants). In some cases the beasts may be connected
to the primary adversary -- night-hounds and/or Phung if the party is in
conflict with the Pnume, for instance.

Hostile Tribes indicates that the party comes into conflict with a group
of humans for reasons unrelated to the main adventure. The humans can be
pirates, bandits, religious fanatics, or just xenophobic natives.

Lack of Funds may mean the party are faced with exorbitant prices beyond
their means, or that they have come to a region in which sequins are not
the common mode of exchange and they must find some way to get some local
currency. Fraud or Sharp Practice is common on Tschai; in this case it
means someone tries to cheat the party in the course of the adventure.
Note that the PCs may not realize they have been cheated until it is too
late to confront the crook.

Lack of Transport indicates some difficulty in getting to a particular
destination -- either the party's vehicle malfunctions or is lost,
commercial transport is unavailable, or there simply is no way to go to a
specific place. Coping with a Lack of Transport may mean working passage,
stealing a vehicle, or surviving an arduous cross-country trek.

Complications provide opportunities for roleplaying and intra-party
conflict; some GMs may prefer not to roll on the Complications table.
Most are self-explanatory. A Person in Distress asking for help gives the
party the choice to get involved; if they do help, they may gain a useful
ally -- or get suckered by a con artist. If they don't, the person may
hold a grudge and take revenge later on.

A Conflict between two factions means that the PCs stumble into the
middle of somebody else's battle. The battle need not be strictly
physical combat, of course. Note that if one of the factions is the
current adversary of the PCs, the party may be able to form an alliance
of convenience with the other group. A crash, shipwreck, or mutiny is a
problem with transportation that occurs in mid-voyage. Sometimes it can
serve as an opportunity rather than a hazard -- PCs could join the
mutineers and gain control of a vehicle as leaders.

Erotic Attachments between PCs and NPCs can lead to trouble when the
relationship goes sour. In this case an NPC previously attracted to one
of the party grows to dislike him; results may include awaile (suicide), simple
desertion, petty revenge, betrayal, or assault.

Inadvertently offending local customs is all too easy to do on Tschai.
Every group or village has its own peculiar traditions, and many of them
seem designed to entrap strangers. This can be as serious as violating a
taboo which carries the death penalty, or as (relatively) minor as
wearing an orange sash without knowing it's the sign of prostitution.

A Traitor in the Group indicates that one of the party -- an NPC or even
one of the player characters -- is working to oppose the aims of the
others. This can mean the traitor is in league with their enemies, but
could also indicate a personal vendetta (possibly the effect of an Erotic
Attachment which has failed), or simply personal goals at odds with the
group's.

Tables

Adversaries
(roll 3d)

3-5:

Wanek

6:

Pnume

7:

Gzhindra

8:

Wanekmen

9:

Dirdirmen

10:

Dirdir

11:

Ordinary Men

12:

Blue Chasch

13:

Chaschmen

14:

Green Chasch

15:

Pnumekin

16-18:

Old Chasch

Goal
(roll 3d)

3-6:

Escort one or more Individuals

7:

Capture a certain Person

8:

Steal an Item

9:

Reach a Destination

10:

Rescue a Person

11:

Escape from Captivity

12:

Find an Object

13:

Defend a Location

14:

Transport an Item safety

15-18:

Conquer a Location

Additional Perils
(roll 1d for the number of perils, then 1d for the nature of each)

1:

Savage beasts (including Phung)

2:

Hostile Tribes (ordinary Men unrelated to adversaries)

3:

Additional Adversaries (roll again on table 1)

4:

Lack of Funds

5:

Fraud or Sharp Practice

6:

Lack of Transport

Complications
(roll 1d for the number of complications, then 1d for the nature of each)

1:

Asked for Help by a person in distress

2:

Caught up in a conflict between two factions (roll for both on Table 1)